You're considered a Good Samaritan as long as you're not being paid to provide Emergency Medical Care as a Healthcare Provider acting under Medical Direction with Medical Protocols.

The public's perception is that teachers/coaches will respond and know what to do, therefore; the risk of legal accusation is greater for not helping than trying to help.

Good Samaritan law in a nutshell:

1. You don't have to help if you don't want to.

If you decide to help:

2. You're now obligated to provide care to the best of your ability and training as best as you can remember while you're waiting for help to arrive.

3. You don't have to do things you feel are unsafe like running into a burning building or performing bare mouth to mouth on a stranger.

4. You can't get in trouble as long as you don't cause further harm.

5. You can get in trouble if you intentionally do something you know will cause harm such as actively doing something harmful or intentionally not helping when you know you should.

Teachers would not be protected by Good Samaritan laws if they intentionally do something they know they should not do.

Number 5 should get the attention of teachers because their original CPR class taught them to never leave the child to go get help for the first 2 minutes if they are alone. CPR classes have always taught to perform 2 minutes of CPR and then go get help. However, most schools districts require teachers to leave the child to find the response team.

Leaving the child to find the response team is in direct violation of child CPR standards and is therefore doing something intentionally that the teacher knows they should not be doing based upon their past CPR training.

If the teacher leaves the child because the school district directs them to do so, are they still Good Samaritans? Do they still have those legal safeguards? That's the position the districts that don't follow current CPR guidelines put the teachers in. Its not fair to the teachers.